John chapters 18 and 19 tell the crucifixion story, familiar to us all. I just want to look briefly at some of the characters.

Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) (John 18.10, ESV)

“The servant’s name was Malchus.” John is the only one who knew his name. I wonder what happened to him? Jesus healed him. Would he have become a believer? There are interesting differences among the gospels. They all have the ear cutting story:

• Matthew does not name the servant or Peter or mention the healing.
• Mark is the same as Matthew.
• Luke is the only one who mentions that Jesus healed the ear.
• John is the only one who mentions the servant’s name and Peter’s name.

Switching gears, this paragraph always cracks me up:

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. (John 18.28, ESV)

They didn’t want to be “defiled” by entering the house of a Gentile, but they didn’t mind defiling themselves by condemning the son of God to death. It reminds me of an Air Force officer in the BX back in the 1970s. We shopped with cash in those days, and he didn’t have enough on him to buy both cigarettes and a Penthouse magazine. “I’ll leave the cigarettes. I don’t want to pollute my body.” Of course, he had no qualms about polluting his mind!

Pilate was a weak-willed man who had to choose his allegiance to Caesar over who he was coming to believe Jesus was. Some historical sources indicate that Pilate didn’t finish well.

From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” (John 19.12, ESV)

Finally, we have this:

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. (John 19.38 – 40, ESV)

Two secret disciples. We knew about Nicodemus (see John 3 and John 7.45 – 51). We didn’t know about Joseph of Arimathea, and we don’t know what they did next. Were they among the 120 in the Upper Room?

Who are you and I in these stories? Choose one…

• Impetuous Peter who didn’t know when to use a sword, and cutting off a guy’s ear indicates he might not know how to use one either.
• Poor Malchus, just along for the ride, but he gets to experience a miracle.
• Pious religious leaders (all the gospels point out their hypocrisy and inconsistency)
• Weak-willed Pilate
• A secret disciple, like Joseph or Nicodemus

Now these things took place as examples for us… (1 Corinthians 10.6, ESV)

You became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. (1 Thessalonians 1.7, ESV)

Yesterday, we began looking at Jesus’ prayer in John 17: investing in men was his major work; we are to be in the world but not of it.

Today we look at one area at which we have done terribly:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17.20 – 23, ESV, emphasis mine)

We’ve done a terrible job of this one. “That they may all be one…so that the world may believe that you have sent me…that they may be one even as we are one…so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” 

Wow. He says it twice. Be one…so that the world may know. Maybe that’s why Satan has worked overtime to keep us riled up about inconsequential differences. By contrast, the church in Iran, as I found out watching Sheep Among Wolves, Volume II, believes we shouldn’t have “1,000 points of theology.” Their “test” is simple:

• Do you believe that Jesus came once for sin?
• Do you believe he’s coming back for judgment?

Then we are brothers.

Apostles Paul and John were clear:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4.1 – 3, ESV)

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4.2, 3, ESV)

As was Jesus:

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17.23, ESV)

The real “Lord’s Prayer” is not the one we pray, but the one he prayed! Here are some highlights with a few comments:

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. (John 17.4, ESV)

Jesus referred to God’s work several times in John. “The Father is working, and I am working” in John 5. “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day” in John 9. In this prayer, the work seems to be the men:

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (John 17.6, ESV)

In any case, it’s the Father’s work. Not all were healed. Jesus chose 12 and invested in them and a few others. 

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17.15 – 17, ESV)

There’s the famous “in the world but not of the world.” There needs to be a sanctification / a separation. But a separation of values even while I am “in the world.” 

We are sent into the world. Not called to separate from the world. 

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17.18, ESV)

There’s more to come tomorrow…

Wow. How quickly these things come! I won’t do daily advent meditations quite yet…still too much to share from the end of John’s gospel and my readings from 1 and 2 Thessalonians. But ready or not, Christmas is coming, and it’s a wonderful time of year.

In Jesus we have hope. Friday, I wrote that things do not always go well and cited a friend with pancreatic cancer. My friend Kathleen commented that she just lost a friend to pancreatic cancer. But the Apostle Paul was clear that despite death, in Jesus we have HOPE:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 1.13 – 18, ESV, emphasis mine)

Yesterday, we observed from the end of John 15 and the beginning of John 16 that things do not always go well. Here are some basic facts from the end of John 16:

His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16.29 – 33, ESV)

• In the world you will have tribulation. Fact. 

• Jesus has overcome the world. Fact.

• Jesus came from God. Fact. But the reality of that will be tested as the disciples process the crucifixion. 

[Joseph, son of Jacob, said, ] “Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. (Genesis 40.14, 15, 23, ESV)

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4.4, ESV)

The other day I visited my friend who has pancreatic cancer. He’s not doing well. His spirits are good, and he looks good on the outside, but he assured me that appearances are deceiving. The first time I visited him, I had been reading A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles by J.P. Morland, and I prayed for healing. My friend wasn’t healed. Dr. Morland says only about 20% are, and he believes in and practices divine healing and other supernatural manifestations!

Why aren’t some healed? We will never know. “My Father is working, and I am working.” There were A LOT of people at the pool in John 5, and Jesus healed only one. I have two close Navigator friends with cancer. One died a little over a year ago. Another is still here although some of his markers turned the wrong direction recently.

Jesus is clear that things do not always go well:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15.18 – 20, ESV)

“They will also persecute you.” Life is hard. 

Look how John 16 opens:

I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. (John 16.1, 2, ESV)

Why would they fall away? False assumptions. “I’m serving God so things should go well…” But they don’t always.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. James 1.2, 3, MSG)

It’s Thanksgiving Day! I hope yours is a good one.

Do you ever wonder what the will of God is? Here’s part of it…

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.18, NKJV)

And if you need to thank someone for something, do it! Write that note. Call them on the phone. Regi Campbell, whom I’ve met, and who wrote the marvelous little book About My Father’s Business, wrote this nice piece on Unexpressed Gratitude. In it he quotes Andy Stanley:

Unexpressed gratitude feels like ingratitude.

So again,

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.18, NKJV)

I wrote about “abide” a few weeks ago when we saw it in 1 John. Most of the uses of “abide” are in John 15: the vine and the branches (verses 1 – 16). Here are just a few observations with little comment.

“Abide”

• Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit…unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (4)
• Whoever abides in me and I in him…bears much fruit. (5)
• If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away (6)
• If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask… (7)
• Abide in my love. (9)
• If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. (10)
• I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide… (16)

“If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away” (6) – best we figure out what abide means and do it!

If I’m not bearing “much fruit,” I’m not abiding. (5) (That’s basic mathematical logic: “IF anyone abides in me and I in him, he bears fruit.” Abiding => Fruit. Therefore, No fruit => No abiding.)

There are promises for those who abide:

• Answered prayer (7, 16)
• Love (9, 10)
• Joy (11)

This “abiding” section includes commands:

• Abide: “Abide in me and I in you…” (4)
• Obey: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…” (10)
• Love: “This is my commandment that you love one another…” (12)
• Bear fruit: “I have appointed you to go and bear fruit…” (16)

A rich section. Books, probably libraries, have been written about it. But of all the metaphors Jesus used, this one of abiding as a branch does in a vine seems the most permanent. Jesus is the bread of life, but I can eat bread today and not eat bread tomorrow. He is the living water, and, again, I can take a drink or not. He’s the light, but I can close my eyes or open them. Abiding doesn’t seem like something one can turn on or off.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples… (John 8.31, ESV)

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. (1 John 2.28, ESV)

As Thanksgiving week is upon us, and stores have been hyping the Christmas buying season since October, I interrupt our time in John for a very timely message for us all:

Stop buying!

Don’t take it from me, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is urging Americans to put off buying big-ticket items, according to this article in BecomingMinimalist. I encourage you to read the entire piece, which contains these seven helpful steps to avoid succumbing to high-pressure marketing:

1. Realize the promises of consumerism are always short-lived. I have to quote what they say here because it’s powerful: Every upcoming advertisement during the holiday season will promise you the same thing: a better life. They will work to convince you that their latest product will make you more attractive, will bring you more friends, will create a more beautiful holiday season, or will bring happiness that you can’t find anywhere else. Those promises are false. (Emphasis mine)
2. Consider the benefits of owning less.
3. Know that money on-hand will be more helpful to ride out a recession than a purchase at the mall.
4. Set a budget for this holiday season (and stick to it).
5. Turn off marketing messages.
6. Don’t fall into a scarcity mindset.
7. Look for people you can help.

(All from When the Founder of Amazon Encourages You to Stop Buying… by Joshua Becker)

Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” (Luke 12.15, NLT)

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. (1 Timothy 6.17 – 19, NLT)

The record of the disciples’ intimate time with the disciples begins in John 13, and it starts very powerfully.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13.1 – 5, ESV)

• Jesus knew it was time to go to the cross
• He loved the disciples
• The devil motivated Judas Iscariot to betray him.
• Jesus knew:
  • That the Father had given him all things
  • That he had come from God
  • That he was going back to God
• (Therefore)
  • He dressed as a slave
  • He washed the disciples’ feet

I went swimming in a public outdoor pool in Turkey once when I was stationed there in the Air Force. For 25 cents, you got two thin towels, about the size and consistency of a third of a single bedsheet. One I used as a towel. The other was my bathing suit. I started with it behind me, tied it around my waist, brought the remainder up through my legs, under the knot I just made. The excess hung down in front and would have made a “towel” suitable for footwashing. I’m pretty sure this is what Jesus did when he “removed his outer garments and tied a towel around his waist.” It was OK for swimming, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be the only guy in a room dressed like that!

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (John 13.13 – 15, ESV)

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (John 13.17, ESV)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant… (Philippians 2.5 – 7, ESV)